February 2017

Saturday, February 25, 2017

In the competitive framework, medals are the coinage of the realm--with a hierarchy of local, regional, national, and international circuits that serve as the proving grounds. In this ecosystem, it's clear as day that not all practitioners and competitors are created equally. The same can be saidboth at a time between competitors and across times. So, for instance, being a multi-time world champion as an adult in jiu jitsu is more impressive and significant than being a master or senior world champion merely once (as impressive as that might be when viewed from yet another scale of analysis). While both are impressive accomplishments--that often go together as today's world champions are commonly tomorrow's master and senior world champions--no one should pretend that the former and latter are somehow equivalent in their magnitude and significance. All other things being equal, the winner of ADCC is a better grappler than the winner of a regional NAGA--even though both may hold the same belt.

This kind of hierarchical competitive framework is something one is well aware of growing up in other grapplings arts. For instance, being a state champion from Iowa or Pennsylvania has always meant more than being a state champion from Florida or Georgia (which is where I grew up) just as being a national champion is less impressive than being a world champion or Olympian, and so on. So, one's skills and accomplishments must always be relativized to the appropriate scale or competitive niche in order to serve as a useful tool of comparison.

It is partly for this reason that belts and belt progression are helpful. They relativize individuals both to lineages and affiliations across times and during times. If you tell me that someone is a multi-time world champion at white, blue, purple, brown, and black belt who trains under the Alliance banner, I know what that means--namely, they will easily submit me as well as most of the people I have ever or will ever train with. In short, once properly relativized, our respective places in the overall and ever-expanding evolutionary ecosystems is well-established. As someone who grew up wrestling and competing successfully in the south and someone who competed both as an adult and as a senior in jiu jitsu (at the regional, national, and international level), I know my place. I have earned gold and silver at local tournaments and lost embarrassingly during the the first round at the Pans.

But once we leave the competitive realm, where it is easier to know one's place in the respective hierarchies--belts replace medals as the local coinage and things become inevitably murkier. To the untrained masses who serve as possible consumers, customers, training partners, and fellow students, belts and lineages serve as surrogates and social signifiers for legitimacy and success. At this scale of analysis, black belts trump brown belts and so on, down the line. So, a gym with a black belt (or multiple black belts) will tend to garner more interest than a gym with only a purple belt (although, this, too, used to be different when there were not many black belts outside of Brazil). But even here the belts are still scale-variant. For some black belts are hobbyists who have never competed, some are former or active competitors, and the competitors can be further broken down based on the strength of their accomplishments etc. Moreover, this scale-variance is further complicated by the unique goals, needs and interests of the practitioners themselves--e.g., I am less interested in whether someone is a world beater and more interested in whether they are a good instructor.

Yet further compounding matters is the fact that competitive success is no guarantee of pedagogical success. After all, lots of great champions make for horrible teachers and vice versa--a number of great teachers were never great competitors themselves. So, while competitive success and medals serve as proxies much as belts (or lineages) serve as proxies at other levels, there are never any guarantees. So, the respective tokens of success in jiu jitsu--medals, on the one hand, and belts, on the other hand--can and should be both scale-variant and relativized to one's own uniques interests and preferences. As a practitioner, competitor, student, or coach, one will always do well to keep this fact in mind--which will help instill a sense of humility when it comes to one's place (or lack thereof) among the pantheon of jiu jitsu greats to one's place on the regional competitive circuit or even one's place within one's gym or affiliation.

It is this perceptive that will ultimately help one make progress. For my part, I am a busted up but grizzled purple belt with more teaching experience than is common for someone at my belt level. I am also someone who has spent enough time on the mats to know my strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. But for all that, I am no world beater--and neither are my training partners. But I am comfortable in my own skin just as I am comfortable with the scale-variant nature of my successes and failures--both locally and more broadly. I would like to think this makes me a better training partner, student, and instructor. If not, perhaps more deep thinking about medals, belts, promotions, and scale variation might do me some good. I could also just go to open mats and try to enjoy some flow rolls--which is all I really have left these days anyway (other than early morning missives here at The Grumpy Grappler, of course).

Thursday, February 23, 2017

When people ask me how my neck is doing these says, I quip that I am *fixed*--which is literally true after my second neck surgery--even though my neck pain, limited range of motion, etc. are far from fixed and will, in some important sense, be forever a constant source of irritation and agitation. I have written about my own journey in this regard several times (see here, here, here, here, and here). Now I had some new thoughts to share since the fusion is healed as it is going to be at this point and the next step of my progress begins.

For starters, one thing you notice when rolling with people who have a background is wrestling is that we have often already developed the skill of using our head as a trip pod, fifth limb, etc.--which in turn requires good neck strength, flexibility, and mobility. Indeed, this is often a focus of training and drilling in wrestling. Moreover, because we are accustomed to turtling, using rolling, bridging, etc., we are comfortable extracting ourselves from bad situations and maintaining good ones by using our neck and head. But now that my neck has been "fixed," I have greatly lost this asset.

Further compounding matters, because I need my training partners not to go for chokes or put lots of pressure on my neck, I try to return the favor. But this means lots of reverse kesa getame--which in turns means lots of key locks, arm locks, kimuras, etc. both when I am on a top (which a good thing) and when I am on bottom (which is bad thing). In short, I can't simply bail like I used to and now my game is stuck.

I can still play footsies--albeit not being able to go inverted makes it hard at times--and I can flow roll for positional transitions and control, but my options for top submissions seems limited and my bottom defense is horrible since I don't even want to give people half guard and frame up on their throats and shrimp out (since they will only return the favor by posting on my neck--as they should). And if I play closed guard, people will try to stack me (which is bad for my neck), or they will tug like hell on my collar (which is bad for neck), etc.--you get the picture by now.

I am not posting this just to complain--albeit, I am the grumpy grappler. I am posting to hear back from readers who have had similar plateaus related to injuries or age. Sometimes I am so stiff, it seems like I should just quit altogether--but that doesn't seem like the right strategy either. All I know for sure is that when I don't just play footsies, I now regularly find myself in problematic situations on bottom that never used to give me much trouble. Somehow, it seems related to my neck. Trying to problem solve from the inside is proving difficult. It seems a multi-pronged approach is needed--strength training, more mobility, more privates, more rolling!

Any black belts in the lowcountry or the triangle area interested in doing a private or two to help me troubleshoot? If so, shoot me a message through the FB page!

p.s. I will talk to Jeff Robertson (Devine Jiu Jitsu Charleston) about this at practice today!

p.p.s. Here is an old post about some foundations of mobility, range of motion, etc. I will post again in a few days with some neck-specific exercises.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Here is an old post I am recycling given that there are several upcoming tournaments in the region/area (see here). Earlier, I identified five mistakes I see people make at tournaments and one of the most common is cutting weight improperly. Cutting weight--even when done correctly and safely--is a grind. Every minute of it sucks. So, why bother? To get the competitive edge, course. But the competitive edge in the white belt division (at a local tournament with one or two people in your division). C'mon now. It's too soon, too serious, me thinks. If you haven't already attended a few tournaments and competed with some success, don't even think about cutting weight.

It will be a distraction and a detraction that will discolor your experience (souring everything unnecessarily). Competing should be fun. Don't forget that aspect along the way. Keep it fun while keeping your extra pounds (at least this time around). Let the upper belts worry about their weight cuts when something more substantive is on the line. For now, take it in, learn from the experience, eat well, and stay hydrated at all costs. Most importantly, remember this is a hobby for many of us (even if hobbyists come in degrees as well (see here for details)!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

As someone who grew up wrestling, I, too, inherited the stubbornness and hardheadedness that wrestlers are well known for in grappling, mixed martial arts, and sport more generally--a mindset that is well captured by the "embrace the grind" mantra. Yet, somehow, at some point along the way, I have become quite weary of the grind--which has already taken various tolls on my body (ranging from an ACL replacements caused by a judo mishap in 1996 to two neck surgeries to fix damage caused by a bicycle wreck in 1996 and 2016, respectively). This presents me with a quandary--namely, a disconnect between what I need and want to be able to do on the mats and in the real world and what I can actually do as a 44-year old whose body is starting to predictably fail him.

Tournament medals from my childhood, adolescence, or even adulthood will prove insufficient if and when my mettle must lamentably be tested in a real life situation. While I may be good for a take down here or there (probably a snatch single) and while I have enough muscle memory to sprawl and flatten out most untrained men roughly my size and strength [a number of important qualifications, I might add], I simply don't train enough stand up these days to have the confidence in my take downs that I should at this point. Indeed, during the past 12+ years of my own jiu jitsu journey, I have spent relatively little time honing my pre-existing take down skills. As a result, I squandered an otherwise asset. And I am not alone. As I have pointed out here before and have others have complained elsewhere, jiu jitsu has a take down problem. Far too many coaches and students are unwilling to embrace the grind. And far too many wrestlers start jiu jitsu and then follow suit.

There are several putative explanations for this. First, take downs require space if they are to be done safely. And most gyms don't have adequate space. To me, this is a dubious justification. Many judo gyms and wrestling rooms are small, and they, too, manage to make room for take downs. Second, practicing take downs can be grueling and it can grind things down to a painful halt--hence, the embrace the grind mantra. But grinds suck for good reason and it's easier enough to see why one might prefer to avoid them if at all possible! For while it is fun when you're the one successfully completing a throw, being thrown is much less pleasant and can wear down even the best trained athletes. Third, and most importantly for present purposes, practicing and using take downs can be more dangerous. This doesn't, in itself, justify gyms paying insufficient time to take downs--as many gyms do--but it does mean that one must proceed with caution.

But how is one to proceed if one is wanting to work on take downs while nursing injuries or just staving off old age? My gym (Devine Jiu Jitsu here in Charleston) is doing an increasingly better job adding take downs into their overall curriculum--both in gi and no-gi. But the focus will be more on traditional wrestling take downs than judo or sambo throws. I also plan to cover some take downs in my self-defense training and teaching. Finally, a good friend, training partner, and former D-1 wrestler is also starting to tinker with me on the feet when we flow roll.

A former gym I think very fondly of (Triangle Jiu Jitsu, run by Seth Shamp) used to implement a proper throw mat when we were practicing throws--which can otherwise take a major wear and tear on the body. The downside to these otherwise often training tools: They are expensive and take up lots of space. The same can be said of grappling dummies--which we also used growing up but which are also expensive and take up yet more space.

So, that said, how do people strike the proper balance between take downs and ground work when it comes all of the various grappling styles--especially when injuries and the other siren songs of old age start to sing?

Saturday, February 18, 2017

As readers of this blog know, I am a fan of fairly formal curricula--whether we're talking about the college class room (where I have been teaching philosophy for the better part of 16 years) or the gym (where I have been grappling in some form or fashion since I was in grade school). While having a curriculum isn't everyone's cup of tea, when done right (which admittedly isn't easy to do in itself), I think they can be a real asset for both student and professor alike. But now is neither the time nor place to reenter that argumentative breach! If I haven't already successfully made my case at this point, nothing I will say in the coming paragraphs is likely to convince.

However, I did want to stop to applaud the recent efforts by iconoclast and grappling trend setter (for better and worse) Eddie Bravo when it comes to the warm ups that his 10th Planet affiliates have adopted in an effort to regiment what they're offering at the gyms around the country (and around the world). Even if one doesn't like each and every technique (or even series of techniques), there are plenty of interesting and important motions that gyms everywhere should consider adding to their warm ups and drills! So, without further ado, here is the introductory taxonomy, drills, and routines:

Friday, February 17, 2017

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!" ~ Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988)

Rules are to grappling what turtles are to cosmology--namely, upon closer inspection they go all the way down (with no proverbial bottom in sight). When all goes well, the rules delimit (from the inside and from the outset) what falls within the scope of acceptability for a particular martial art or style. They tell us when and were certain actions are tolerated or prohibited (or whether these actions fall in the ineliminable gray zone in between). These rules (or lack thereof) even decide what it is we're doing in the first place--e.g., the difference between self-defense and assault and battery. In short, rules can and should make a difference!

To engage in a martial art is first and foremost to engage in an activity with a certain set of agreed up norms, rules, standard practices, expectations, etc. While the rules may explicitly state what can and cannot be done, they may also limit or curtail certain norms and patterns of behaviors in more tacit ways. However, while there is much uncertainty when it comes to the rules and etiquette of jiu jitsu--varying as they do from time to time, gym to gym, and organization to organization--one thing is clear: One must take it upon one's self to know which rules and norms apply to one's own circumstances or situation. If one is competing with a new organization or training at a new gym, one must be clear on the rules from the outset. As in the law, ignorance is no excuse. The onus is on you to know what is expected, what is permissible, what is tolerated but frowned upon, and what it outright forbidden or prohibited. Merely stating after the fact that you didn't know better is no excuse. The important thing is that you both could and should have known better.

While in an ideal world, different organizations would adopt a universal set of rules and best practices, we do don't find ourselves living in such an ideal world. Rather, in the imperfect world we inhabit, different organizations have their own preferred set of rules (all the way down). While there is much overlap--e.g., no biting or eye gouging--there is much less unanimity elsewhere--e.g., can lower belts even leg lock, bro?

So, I thought I would post some links to some of the international, national, and regional organizations to make it easier for me to start cataloging the similarities and differences between their respective rule sets in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

In a series of posts last year here at The Grumpy Grappler, I released some findings from an online BJJ survey I ran that explored a wide range of issues and which included data from 700+ practitioners from around the world. See here, here, here, here, and here to get started! You can even find the complete data set here--which is free to use for your research purposes (whether you are a practitioner, gym owner, sports doctor, or kimono manufacturer)! There are lots of interesting issues to explore and lots of data to sift through for interested parties.

For now, I want to focus on some findings I take to be noteworthy when it comes to (a) why people start training, on the other hand, and (b) how gyms tend to be organized (in terms of curricula), on the other hand. More specifically, if you peruse the hundreds of write-in responses below (see attached document) concerning why respondents started training jiu jitsu in the first place, you’ll quickly see that a common and unsurprising theme is that a bulk of people come to jiu jitsu looking to either learn self-defense or to get in shape (or some combination of the two).

Like me, many of the participants in this study were first exposed to the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) via The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It was seeing Royce Gracie’s early success with BJJ that planted the seeds of my own interest in the then mysterious art. As someone who already had a background in another grappling-centric martial art (namely, American folk style wrestling), jiu jitsu was a natural fit for me. And my own jiu jitsu journey continues to this day.

But for present purposes, I don’t want to focus on my own experiences with the martial art. Instead, I want to focus on the disconnect between people’s stated motivation for getting into jiu jitsu and how gyms are often run and operated. Consider, for instance, the responses to the following question from the survey:

Q13 - Does your academy focus on self-defense?

Self-defense is the primary focus 6.35% 42Self-defense is one of several focuses 54.61% 361Self-defense is not a focus at my academy 39.03% 258

Total 100% 661

In short, nearly 40% of gyms do not focus on self-defense training—a surprising number given people’s aforementioned statements concerning why they started training jiu jitsu. If learning self-defense and getting in shape are two key motivations, then perhaps it would make more sense for gym owners to build these two elements into their curriculum more overtly when possible.

Instead, uninspired warm ups and a focus on the sportive elements of BJJ can often be the norm at gyms around the country. Indeed, the take down has even become a lost art in many gyms where participants always (or almost always) begin from the knees while "live training"—which is a deleterious if understandable practice that removes much of the realism from many of the techniques of BJJ.

Click on the following attachment to see the complete responses to the question about why people started training jiu jitsu. Just for kicks, I included the responses to two follow up questions as well that focus on people's likes and dislikes when it comes to jiu jitsu! The entire document is 70+ pages long, so there is plenty to see for those who have the time.

That's it for now. I hope this is useful to at least some readers of the blog--especially those who want to see more self-defense training offered in gyms!

p.s. This state of affairs is partly what motivated me to start a non-profit called Learn to Resist that aims to provide self-defense training to members of the local community. You can find more details about this side project here. The over-arching goal is to make jiu jitsu-inspired self-defense training available to presently under-served communities—e.g., women, at-risk youth, and veterans.

Saturday, February 04, 2017

Just a few days ago, I posted some links to videos about the kimura funnel system that has been developed by Vagner Rocha (see here). I highly recommend you add the techniques and positions to your own game. It's simple, widely applicable, and effective--a great combination. For today's post, I wanted to include a few videos I just stumbled upon that contain some suggestions for sneaky ways to entrap your opponents' arms with their kimonos in order to get the set up for the kimura. As someone who likes lapel chokes, these lapel chokes for the arms should be fun to tinker with at the next practice. So, watch, learn, and go train!

Thursday, February 02, 2017

One technique that folks at the gym have been using a lot lately--both on one another and on visitors from near and far--is the kimura funnel position developed by Vagner Rocha (a controversial figure but a helluva grappler notwithstanding). The basic positions gives you several options depending on what your opponent does from home base. So, without further ado, here are three videos to get you started. Watch, learn, and go train!